TESTIMONY TO THE INVISIBLE: ESSAYS ON SWEDENBORG [Paperback]

JAMES LAWRENCE (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1995

This collection of essays highlights the influence of Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) on art, spirituality, and culture. Opening with an essay by Spanish-language writer and metaphysician Jorge Luis Borges, from which the collection draws its name, the volume includes a description of Swedenborg's influence on Fyodor Dosteovsky by Czleslaw Mloscz; a look at Swedenborg from a mystical perspective from Wilson Van Dusen; the transcendentalist connection with Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay by Eugene Taylor; and Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki's describes similarities between Swedenborg's philosophy and Buddhism. Essays by Kathleen Raine on Swedenborg's poetic influence and Colin Wilson on the psychological perspective on Swedenborg's visions round out the collection.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Testimony To The Invisible is a collection of essays explaining the influence of Emanuel Swedenborg on religion, psychology, and literature. Contributors include authors Jorge Luis Borges and Czeslaw Milosz, metaphysician Colin Wilson, psychologist Wilson Van Dusen, poet Kathleen Raine, and historian Eugene Taylor (who writes about Emerson's admiration for Swedenborg). In addition, Kei Torita translates excerpts from "Swedenborugu", written by Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki, that explains his interest in Swedenborg's writings and his work of translating them into Japanese. As the insights of Emanuel Swedenborg can be appreciated by a variety of readers, so will this collection appeal to many: especially those interested in the history of ideas, religion, philosophy, literature and psychology. Testimony To The Invisible shows how relevant Swedenborg is today, just as he has been influential in the past. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

The Reverend Doctor James F. Lawrence received his D. Min. from the Graduate Theological Foundation and has been a Swedenborgian minister for more than twenty years, most recently serving as pastor for the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco.  He served for many years as the publisher of J. Appleseed, Inc., a Swedenborgian publishing house. Dr. Lawrence is currently the dean of the Swedenborgian House of Studies in Berkeley, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Chrysalis Books; 1st Edition edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877851492
• ISBN-13: 978-0877851493
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Swedenborg and the mundus imaginalis, February 11, 2009

By 

Keith W. Harvey "Keith Harvey" (Dallas, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: TESTIMONY TO THE INVISIBLE: ESSAYS ON SWEDENBORG (Paperback)

This volume contains seven essays by diverse but well known thinkers, mystics and poets discussing the importance of an obscure--for most of us--Swedish thinker, Emanuel Swedenborg.

Swedenborg was born in Stockholm in 1688. As Borges states in his essay, "this peerless, solitary man was many men." He was a cabinet builder, a mathematician, a scientist, and inventor. However, and most important to us, he was a mystic. Wilson van Dusen in his essay defines a mystic as "one who experiences God." When Swedenborg was fifty-six an event occurred that Swedenborg called the "discrete degree." From that point on he dedicated himself to the life of the visionary. During the next thirty years--he was quite long-lived--he produced the incredible works that influenced, inter alia, William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James, Sr., Carlyle, Dostoevsky. Jorge Luis Borges, Czeslaw Milosz, and countless other poets and mystics.

Each one of the essays in this collection sheds a different light on Swedenborg and his influence. For instance,Kathleen Raine's "The Human Face of God" is particularly illuminating. In it she discusses William Blake's dedication to and study of Swedenborg but she also discusses the way Blakes ideas, influenced by Swedenborg informed the works of Carl Jung and Henry Corbin. Another strong essay in the collection is Eugene Taylor's "Emerson: The Swedenborgian and Transcendentalist Connection." After reading Mr. Taylor's essay, I was reminded of how saturated 19th American literature is with the visionary ideas of Swedenborg and how close to the Mundus imaginalis such writers as Hawthorne and Melville are.

If you are interested in the visionary experience, I highly recommend this collection of essays.

2 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars people, September 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: TESTIMONY TO THE INVISIBLE: ESSAYS ON SWEDENBORG (Paperback)

this is a very instering thing.

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